Called WealthClub, the firm specialises in tax-efficient EIS, SEIS, VCT and IHT products and aims to provide high net worth investors with “more compelling and advanced investment opportunities than normally available through mainstream investment platforms and financial advisers”.
Davies, who is chief executive of the new firm, spent 15 years at Hargreaves Lansdown, joining as a graduate trainee and working his way up to board director, a post he held from 2006, until his departure at the end of December 2013.
Yearsley is the firm’s investment director. He worked at Hargreaves Lansdown from 1997 to 2012, after which he joined Charles Stanley Direct as head of investment research, a post he left in 2015.
Marketing director, Caricato worked at Hargreaves for 10 years, latterly as head of pensions marketing. The three are joined by two others: finance and compliance director, David Suckling and Sheridan Leech as head of client service.
Market gap
The idea for the service came when Davies, who was looking for tax-efficient ways to invest his money after his departure from Hargreaves.
“Good-quality services to help high net worth investors with non-standard and tax-efficient investments were thin on the ground. It was really hard to get sound, unbiased information,” he said in a press release announcing the launch.
Yearsley added that while about £18.5bn ($26.3bn, €24.3bn) has been raised in these more esoteric offerings in the past 20 years, it has not really changed much in that time.
“It is an area that is ripe for innovation,” he said.
In a video on the website, Davies said as further rationale for the service: “Last year the top 10% of earners paid 58.7% of UK’s total income tax receipts and it is going to get worse. We have a choice, we can sit and watch the raid on dividends, pensions and buy to let, or we can take action and explore less mainstream investments.”
“High net worth investors are being attacked every step of the way and for more sophisticated investors there is a lack of quality impartial information. Wealth Club will fill that void – and there are some simple reasons why we believe its time has come. “Recently the increase in dividend tax, restrictions on pension contributions and buy-to-let mean people – particularly the better off – are getting hammered from all directions,” Yearsley added.
